Giller winner surprised by success

His first book, the short story collection Bloodletting &
Miraculous Cures, was released in 2006 with advance praise from
literary heavyweights Margaret Atwood and Wayson Choy. It was
followed the same year by Lam's second book, The Flu Pandemic
and You, co-written with physician Colin Lee.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (Anchor Books, 368 pages,
$19.99) has been a great success for the first-time author, becoming
a Canadian bestseller after it was awarded the Giller Prize last
November. All of the attention has taken the 31-year-old Toronto
emergency room physician by surprise.

"I certainly didn't have any expectations akin to this,"
states a modest Lam. "I thought I might be photocopying my
own book, and giving it to people, which is certainly always a
danger for any writer. My biggest expectation, the hope in my
mind, was just to get it published."

The book's success has gone beyond the world of publishing, with
rights sold to Shaftesbury Films for development as a television
series for The Movie Channel. Lam will be consulting on the series.
"I hope that my vantage point will be useful, since I know
both the medical milieu and the dramatic elements of the stories
with which Shaftesbury will be working," says Lam.

Not bad for a man who doesn't even own a television set. "But
I have a laptop," Lam says, "and I have seen TV, just
on DVD."

The news of the TV series followed on the heels of the Giller
win, although Lam notes that "my agent, Anne McDermid, and
I had been in conversation with Shaftesbury for some time previous
to me winning the Giller, and of course all involved were very
pleased to be able to solidify working on this project together."

Much has been made of Lam's double life as writer and doctor,
an expected point of interest given that the stories in Bloodletting
& Miraculous Cures centre around characters who are themselves
doctors. Almost as much ink has been spilled discussing Lam's
medical career as discussing his book, but he doesn't mind.

"I enjoy being a practicing, competent doctor, and a practicing,
competent writer," says Lam. "It certainly doesn't bother
me that anyone is interested in the fact that I am a doctor."
To Lam, the curiosity seems natural, stemming as it does from
fascination with the intersection between fiction and so-called
"real life."

Some might expect a book of stories about doctors written by
a doctor to be dry and unappealing, given the vast amount of jargon
in the field. Readers might initially be dismayed to discover
that the book contains a glossary of technical terms, but they
will be pleased to learn that it is not necessary to consult this
glossary while reading. Lam's focus is always on characters and
emotional responses to medical situations, not the technical aspects
of illnesses or procedures.

Lam made a conscious decision as a writer to neither "talk
down" to his readers nor expect them to have access to the
same kind of insider knowledge. "That was very deliberate,
and I was very aware of that issue," he says. "My reference
point in writing this was that I wanted it to be readable for
a lay person, but at the same time I wanted it to be readable
for someone who was a physician."

Lam wanted to become a writer from a young age, long before considering
a career as a doctor. If his success as a writer continues, would
he give up the medical profession? "Well, the jobs are not
mutually exclusive, but it's a complicated question," says
Lam, before settling upon "I don't think so." Lam finds
that "the jobs reinforce each other quite well," and
believes that "there's only a certain amount of writing one
can do in a given day, since you need time to ruminate."

One of the stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, entitled
A Long Migration, concerns Dr. Chen, who reappears in many of
the stories, and his dying grandfather, Percival Chen. The elder
Chen will be the subject of Lam's first novel, Cholon, Near Forgotten.
The novel will be published by Doubleday Canada, although its
release date is not yet confirmed.

Lam's website summarizes the novel as follows: "Born in
a small village in Guangdong province at the time of the last
Chinese Emperor, Percival Chen loses two successive sets of parents,
and flees from the 1945 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. He makes
his fortune as headmaster of an English school in Saigon, and
loses it as a gambler during the Vietnam War. In 1998, Percival
is dying from cancer in Brisbane, Australia, occasionally visited
by his children and grandchildren who are scattered through the
world."

It is the last days of Percival Chen that are the focus of A
Long Migration, and the novel can be expected to focus more fully
on his earlier life.

"Unfortunately, I can't really say much more than what is
in the press release," says Lam. The seeds of the book were
planted prior to the writing of the short stories, and Lam is
currently completing the novel.

"When the short stories took off, at that time, I felt like
that (Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures) was a book that I had
to write first. But that novel had been in the works for a long
time."

Having met with a great deal of unanticipated, and in many ways
unprecedented, success, Lam might be expected to have loftier
aims than "just getting published." But, Lam says, "I
wouldn't say my goals have changed that much. My primary goal
in writing (Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures) was just to write
a good book, and my goal for (Cholon, Near Forgotten) is to write
the best book that I can."

Jonathan Ball is a Calgary writer.

Readings

Vincent Lam will read Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the John Dutton
Theatre of the W.R. Castell Central Library. Tickets: $5, available
at Pages on Kensington.